Plaquemines Parish, Louisiana

Plaquemines Parish, a largely rural and coastal region along the Lower Mississippi River just outside New Orleans, has been a focal point for an ongoing fight against coal export infrastructure. Known for its rich wetlands, fishing and seafood industries, and historic Black communities such as Ironton and Wood Park, the parish has also hosted multiple existing coal export facilities that residents and environmental groups have linked to chronic coal dust exposure, water pollution, respiratory health concerns, and threats to coastal restoration efforts.

Coal has been exported along the Mississippi River from terminals in Plaquemines Parish for decades. These facilities store vast quantities of coal in uncovered piles that are frequently exposed to wind and rain, producing visible plumes of dust that blow into nearby residential neighborhoods and natural habitats. Residents and observers have reported that this dust contributes to respiratory problems such as asthma and bronchitis and degrades local air and water quality.Public Citizen, a national consumer and environmental advocacy organization, documented community opposition dating back to hearings in 2015, where more than 150 local residents and advocates urged state regulators to reject a coastal use permit for a proposed new coal export terminal in Plaquemines Parish. Speakers highlighted concerns that the facility would worsen local air and water pollution, threaten coastal wetlands restoration projects like the Mid-Barataria Sediment Diversion, and increase dangerous coal train traffic through residential areas.

RAM Coal Export Terminal Proposal

In the early 2010s, Armstrong Energy’s RAM coal export terminal proposal emerged as a contentious project. The plan would have placed a large coal export facility near Myrtle Grove and Ironton, adjacent to sensitive coastal restoration areas and existing industrial infrastructure. Once built, the terminal would have required long, uncovered coal trains to serve it, carrying coal through populated areas and stirring up coal dust for residents to live with daily. Environmental groups, local leaders, and residents joined together against the RAM project. The Clean Gulf Commerce Coalition — including Gulf Restoration Network, Louisiana Environmental Action Network (LEAN), Sierra Club, and other partners — filed lawsuits and formal protests challenging the coastal use permit granted by the Louisiana Department of Natural Resources (DNR), arguing the permit was issued unlawfully and posed unacceptable risks to air quality, coastal restoration, wetlands, and community health.Communities also pushed back against federal permitting decisions. For example, a coalition of environmental groups wrote to the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers urging public hearings after the Corps issued a permit for the RAM terminal without meaningful community consultation, highlighting the potential impacts of coal dust, industrial pollutants, and threats to coastal restoration.

Community Organizing

Resistance to RAM was sustained and multifaceted. Activists, residents, and organizations worked together for years to build public awareness, mobilize local opposition resolutions, and challenge permits through the courts. In a significant legal victory, the 25th Judicial District Court of Louisiana overturned an earlier coastal use permit for the RAM terminal, finding that the DNR failed to consider alternative sites and therefore violated the state constitution. This decision vacated the permit and forced the company to reapply with more thorough analysis.

Plaquemines Parish Council, local elected officials, and neighboring municipal governments such as Gretna and Westwego also passed resolutions opposing the RAM project and its associated rail traffic. Residents emphasized that the proposed facility would worsen existing pollution burdens and threaten emergency response times due to long trains blocking access.In addition to litigation over RAM, environmental groups achieved a separate settlement with United Bulk coal export terminal — one of the existing facilities in Plaquemines Parish — through a citizen suit alleging regular spills of coal and petroleum coke into the Mississippi River in violation of the Clean Water Act. The settlement required United Bulk to implement updated pollution controls and monitoring aimed at reducing spills and minimizing dust and material loss into waterways, and to fund local coastal restoration efforts.

Organizing around coal dust in Plaquemines Parish included attempts to document airborne particulates and connect them to health outcomes. Local advocates conducted strategic observations and community science efforts to test hypotheses about how and when dust was generated. Although these efforts were not always scientifically publishable in the academic sense, they played a critical role in compelling regulators and industry representatives to acknowledge residents’ lived experience of dust exposure, particularly when monitoring suggested elevated particulate matter levels in areas near terminals. Residents reported chronic asthma, bronchitis, and other respiratory concerns they believed were linked to coal dust, and community volunteers used simple tools like PurpleAir sensors and microscopy on dust samples to capture particle data and evidence of coal presence. These grassroots monitoring efforts helped elevate coal dust from anecdote to documented concern in public discussions with regulators and the media.

Relevance and Lessons Learned

The fight in Plaquemines Parish spanned years and demonstrated both challenges and tactics that have wider relevance for environmental justice movements faced with industrial pollution. Organizers found that legal actions such as citizen suits under the Clean Water Act provided valuable leverage, particularly when they could document ongoing operational issues like dust plumes and coal spills. Strategic community monitoring, visual documentation, and media outreach helped shift narratives and validate residents’ concerns in regulatory and public arenas. Organizers also faced internal and external tensions, including race, class, political interests, and media attention dynamics. Strategic alliances with groups representing a range of interests — from coastal restoration advocates to public health supporters — helped broaden the campaign’s reach. Some participants noted that the media and policymakers sometimes paid greater attention when impacts were highlighted in ways perceived as affecting broad, white, audiences, demonstrating how narrative and framing play a role in public visibility.

Policymaking environments differ substantially between Louisiana and Virginia. Plaquemines activists battled state permitting decisions under Louisiana’s coastal use regulatory system and federal environmental laws like the Clean Water Act, and their success in court illustrates the power of legal strategies where statutory protections exist and are enforceable.

In Hampton Roads, regulatory challenges revolve around air quality monitoring and enforcement under the Clean Air Act and state programs, as well as perceived gaps in data and regulatory responsiveness. Local activists often note that official monitoring is patchy, that regulatory agencies have required extensive evidence before acting, and that community narratives frequently precede regulatory attention, leading communities to emphasize community science, storytelling, and coalition building as tools for change.

Documents

6 16 23 Meeting with Scott and Jasmine, Healthy Gulf.docx